Synamedia Uncovers 3M+ Video Streaming Credentials For Sale On Illegal Websites

Synamedia, an independent video software provider, today unveiled the findings of several anti-piracy customer analyses that expose the vast impact streaming piracy — including casual credentials sharing and the illegal sale of passwords — have on video providers and viewers.

Conducted with two tier one video service providers, Synamedia uncovered more than 3,000,000 of viewers’ credentials were compromised across both the dark and open webs over the course of just six months. Additionally, the analysis found that these particular video service providers are likely losing more than $72 million of potential annual revenue in lost subscription fees due to password sharing from roughly 500,000 non-paying users.

Additional findings include:

• If video service providers are able to convert just 7% of casual “freeloading” accounts into paying customers, they could see additional revenue of more than $5 million annually.
• Of the 3 million compromised accounts, 6,000 were available for purchase at competitive price points across 15 different marketplaces and forums, making illegal access more likely.
• That service providers were unaware of 15% — more than 500,000 users — of accounts accessing their content because they were “freeloading” from the 85% who are paying subscribers.
• On average, service providers can grow their subscriber base by 9% if they were to convert 50% of the consumers benefiting from credentials sharing into legitimate subscribers

“The streaming wars are not going away, and the massive threat of streaming video piracy can no longer be ignored, it’s simply too costly,” said Jean-Marc Racine, chief product officer, Synamedia. “The eye-opening statistics from these investigations illustrate just a microcosm of the real impact we’re seeing worldwide. In order to survive, video providers must defend their livelihood with state-of-the-art technology, the intelligence of experts who think like pirates do, and who know how they work so they can move even faster than the relentless thieves. Synamedia’s security expertise and tools help providers stay ahead of the game.”

OTT and pay TV companies will have lost around $9.1 billion of revenue due to piracy and account sharing in 2019 alone, according to a report from Parks Associates. That number will reportedly grow by 38% to $12.5 billion by 2024.